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How is the framework of the wigwam made?
The frame for the wigwam is made of saplings, (young green trees), that are stuck into the ground. The sapling poles are bent and tied together at the top. This frame is covered with sheets of bark from birch trees or mats made of woven plants.
How does a wigwam work?
Tepees (also spelled Teepees or Tipis) are tent-like American Indian houses used by Plains tribes. Like modern tents, tepees are carefully designed to set up and break down quickly. As a tribe moved from place to place, each family would bring their tipi poles and hide tent along with them.
How are Wickiups made?
The wickiup was constructed of tall saplings driven into the ground, bent over, and tied together near the top. This dome-shaped framework was covered with large overlapping mats of woven rushes or of bark that were tied to the saplings.
What Native American tribe used wigwams?
Algonquian Indians
Wigwams (or wetus) are Native American houses used by Algonquian Indians in the woodland regions. Wigwam is the word for “house” in the Abenaki tribe, and wetu is the word for “house” in the Wampanoag tribe. Sometimes they are also known as birchbark houses. Wigwams are small houses, usually 8-10 feet tall.
What Native Americans used Wickiups?
Who lived in a Wickiup? The Wickiup was generally used as a shelter by some of the nomadic Native Indian Tribes who inhabited the Southwest and the Great Basin region. The names of the tribes who lived in the Wickiup style shelter included the southern Apache, and the Great Basin Paiute, Washoe, Goshute and Bannock.
How are saplings used to build a wigwam?
The bent saplings were then placed over the drawn circle, using the tallest saplings in the middle and the shorter ones on the outside. The saplings formed arches all in one direction on the circle. The next set of saplings were used to wrap around the wigwam to give the shelter support.
How big should a wigwam be at the base?
Willow, birch, even sassafras saplings work well. The important thing is that the saplings should be no bigger around at the base than 2 inches, and shouldn’t taper over a 14 foot length to any less than 1 inch in diameter. The saplings should be straight and with few branches.
What kind of wood was used for a wigwam?
The wigwam is not to be confused with the Native Plains teepee, which has a very different construction, structure, and use… A typical wigwam in the Northeast had a curved surface which can hold up against the worst weather. Young green tree saplings of just about any type of wood, ten to fifteen feet long, were cut down and bent.
How are the poles set in a wigwam?
The Y poles are set into the ground so that the sleeping platform is level with the first hoop (about 2 ½ feet off the ground). Support the front of the platform with additional Y poles about three feet in from the walls of the wigwam.
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